Cromaris forms new, three-member Management Board

The leading Croatian producer and the sixth producer in the world of sea bass and sea bream Cromaris, which operates within the Adris Group, by today’s decision of the Supervisory Board has got a new, three-member Management Board. Ivan Leko has been appointed Chairman of the Board, with Dane Desnica and Giuseppe Virzi becoming Board members. The former CEO Goran Markulin continues working in Adris as an advisor to the newly appointed Management Board of Cromaris.

As stated in the explanation, since the founding of Cromaris in 2009, Adris Group has invested more than a billion kuna into its development, which has resulted in strong growth of all business indicators, opening new markets, expanding the product portfolio, and technological and production improvements. Since the company is entering a new, very demanding growth and development cycle, an adjustment of the organisational structure to new market conditions is required to accomplish ambitious goals. Therefore, a new, three-member Management Board has been appointed, whose four-year term begins on 1 April this year.

Adris’ management has thanked Goran Markulin for his exceptional engagement and the results achieved in the growth and development of Cromaris.

Ivan Leko

He was born in Slavonski Brod on 4 August 1973. After finishing high school, he enrolled at the Faculty of Science in Zagreb, from which he graduated as a chemical engineer in 1997. He was employed as a trainee in the Quality Assurance Department of the former Tobacco Factory Rovinj, and in the following years, he held different management positions in manufacturing in tobacco factories in Zagreb and Rovinj. When TDR d.o.o. was founded, Ivan took over the position of the director of operations where he managed the entire vertically integrated supply and production chain. Since 2009, he has been a Board member at TDR and a Supervisory Board member of Hrvatski duhani d.d. and Istragrafika d.d. Alongside different educational programmes and modules at the Adris Academy, IEDC and London Business School, in 2013 Ivan graduated from the Executive MBA programme at the IESE Business School in Barcelona.

When TDR d.o.o. was sold in 2015, Ivan became COO and Regional Administration Board member of Adria British American Tobacco. Since June 2020, Ivan has been employed at Adris Group d.d. as director of business improvement, focusing on real estate management and development projects.

He is happily married and a proud parent of four children, but he still manages to go on long-distance runs, produce his own olive oil and beer, and sometimes scuba dive.

Dane Desnica

He was born in Zadar on 22 March 1980. After finishing high school in Zadar, he enrolled in the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology in Zagreb and graduated in 2004 as a food technology engineer. In 2004, he was employed as an intern at Tankerkomerc d.d. Zadar, and, after finishing the internship, in Marituna d.d., as a technologist in fish processing and tuna farming. He joined the Cromaris team in 2010 as a manager of Cromaris’ farms in Dalmatia, and from 2014 he was in charge of all Cromaris’ farms. Since 2017, he has been serving as the head of production at Cromaris, which includes the Nin hatchery and the sorting and processing plant in Zadar.

He is married and a father of two children. Besides with family, he spends his free time playing football and walking his dog.

Giuseppe Virzi

Giuseppe joined Cromaris in 2018. Having more than 20 years of extensive experience in international business and leading culturally diverse teams, he has developed an understanding and respect for cultural differences within a team and has helped make these differences contribute to successful business operations.

As a former athlete, a holder of the Italian junior long jump record of 7,92 m for a full 18 years, Giuseppe has witnessed the importance of teamwork, commitment and discipline. In 1996, his sports career took him to San Diego, USA, where he worked for the biggest health and fitness chain in the world, climbing rapidly the corporate structure to leading positions. In 2009, a majority shareholder assigned him to lead an innovative project in Europe. After finishing the project, he decided to remain in Italy with his American wife and three children.

Before he joined Cromaris and Adris Group, Giuseppe had worked at Atlantic Group for more than five years, mostly supervising the Sports Nutrition category and its distribution in the main markets (Italy, UK, Spain, Germany, France).

Giuseppe completed his MBA in business management at the University of California in San Diego.

In his free time, he enjoys spending time outdoors, travelling and participating in sports events for the youth.